Dzokhar-Ghala/Agency Caucasus – The Chechen Muslims are now able to attend the religious services in the mosque whose construction began in 1989 in Dzokhar-Ghala, capital of Chechnya, but was later stalled when the war broke out.
The mosque was initially planned to host 300 people. It was later redesigned with support from President Ramzan Kadyrov of the puppet Chechen administration to increase its capacity to 3 000.
The mosque was inaugurated on July 11, Friday, when Mayor Muslim Huchiyev of Dzokhar-Ghala, Mufti Sultan Mirzayev and Duma deputy Adam Delimhanov attended Friday prayers.
Ilyas Arsanov, son of Sheikh Ilyas Arsanov, was one of the people who made the first efforts to build the mosque. He was unable to attend the inaugural because he died in a unfortunate traffic accident in early July this year.
Hamzat Salamov, the imam here, told the story of how the mosque came to be built after its construction was stalled when the war broke out and caused it to be damaged severely with the bullets and bombs. ÖZ/FT
